


Initative

by IWanderintheGardenofForkingPaths



Category: The Good Cop (TV)
Genre: F/M, First Kiss, Hostage Situations, Mild Language, Minor Violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-27
Updated: 2018-10-27
Packaged: 2019-08-08 10:19:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,777
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16427465
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/IWanderintheGardenofForkingPaths/pseuds/IWanderintheGardenofForkingPaths
Summary: Seeing Cora in a dangerous situation sends TJ on a tailspin. What else could finally push him into committing the infraction of kissing one of his subordinates in the office.





	Initative

**Author's Note:**

> Sorry if the perspective shift and the flashbacks make this hard to follow! Flashbacks are between ~'s, since no italics. More notes at end. Please enjoy. I obviously do not own these characters... yada yada.

He could feel his hand shaking again. His mind would not turn off. His eyes would not stop showing him exactly how close he’d come to not only losing Cora, but having to choose between watching her bleed out in front of him or potentially ending her life himself with a misplaced shot.  
“Initiative!” he shouted,kicking the trash can across his office. That damn word. It had all started with those damned personnel evaluations. TJ caught himself mentally swearing and was halfway through chastising himself with the same “swear jar” rant he gave his officers when he felt everything wash over him again. That word had driven Cora to act impulsively.  
Having a hunch is one thing, but chasing off after leads without backup in some cockamamie attempt to prove him wrong was another. If she hadn’t sent Burl that text about following up with their suspect’s ex and if he hadn’t been standing there next to a napping Burl’s cell phone in time to see the text pop up on the screen, he shuddered again to think what might have happened.

~  
The raised voices he’d heard as he approached the front door had him drawing his weapon and angling his advance to the side before he could even process the words being shouted. It was Cora’s scream, however, that had him bypassing all rational thought and allowed instinct to kick in as he breached the door.  
The sight of meat headed, muscle bound, Frank Raskin yanking Cora backward by her hair and holding a knife to her throat is the image that would haunt him til he died. He took in Cora’s zip tied hands and startled face in the same glance as he noted Raskin’s labored breath, red face, and pin-pointed irises.  
“Drop the weapon!” he shouted  
“Another fucking cop! Why can’t you just leave us be! I just wanted to see my girl one more time and then I was gone! Gone for good! I’m not going back to prison!” Frank continued running on as he walked backward, jerkily, still holding a knife to Cora’s throat. On one particularly violent backstep TJ saw a line of red appear along the side of Cora’s neck  
“Drop the weapon and get on the ground!”  
“I can’t go back! I won’t!” Frank bellowed, just before turning his focus back to Cora. He yanked back her hair on more time and in a quieter voice said, “This is all your fault, bitch.”  
“TJ!” was all Cora managed to get out as her eyes stayed locked on me and squeezed the trigger.  
~

“TJ?” a female voice came from across the squad room. Cora was standing silhouetted in the room’s door and it was all TJ could do to stay gripping shaking hands to his desk. All he wanted to do was get across the room and shake her. Or maybe kiss her; he wasn't sure which he actually wanted more right at the moment.  
It was then that all his thoughts finally processed through. There was no way he could do either of those actions. One was basically assault and the second… well as mad as Cora had been at him the past week, maybe that wouldn’t be much better. Plus the whole being her boss, sexual harassment, abuse of authority… thing. It was completely inappropriate. He couldn’t. She couldn’t want…  
“TJ? Are you okay?” Cora’s voice, much closer this time, finally filtered through his mental castigation. He realized he had dropped down into his office chair at some point in a rush of tense exhaustion. Words, however, did not come to him. All he could do was stare at this infuriating and precious woman.  
Cora was right in front of him now leaning back to half sit on his desk. Her hand wavered in front of her, unsure of what to do. Eventually settling on the back of TJ’s neck with her thumb grazing his rapid pulse point below and behind his ear. She leaned in, trying to make eye contact, “TJ?”  
“You could have died! You almost had your throat slit right in front of me. Damn it, Cora, I could have shot you!” TJ burst out. Cora startled back and almost dropped her hand when TJ stood abruptly, instantly placing him so close that the fabric of his suit brushed against the denim of her jeans. One of his hands came up to hold hers in place while his other hand seemed to mirror hers as he grasped her neck on her non injured side.  
“I could have lost you over a stupid performance evaluation!”  
“TJ, I’m sorry. It wasn’t…”  
And then he kissed her. Cora felt herself drawn forward the few inches that were left between them as TJ’s lips met hers with more force and ferocity than she would have ever expected from this careful man. His mouth ate at hers, not with a claiming or dominant invasion, but with a desperate hunger for nearness.  
Cora’s stomach flipped and her hand came up to rest beneath his suit jacket. However, before she could even come close to deciding if it was to push him away or pull him in closer, TJ’s grip on the back of her head tilted her jaw for a better angle. A sharp jolt of pain from just above her collarbone, cause Cora to hiss in pain and flinch back.  
TJ dropped his hands instantly and stumbled backward into his bookshelf. “Oh God. Oh my, God! I’m so sorry. There’s no excuse. I’m your boss… and in my office.” TJ nearly stuttered.  
Cora’s head was spinning as she applied pressure to the throbbing slice at her neck. She tried to process what he was talking about, but her wound ached and, Anthony Caruso of all people, had just laid one of the hottest kisses she’d ever had on her in the precinct. “TJ…”  
“No excuse!” he continued as even more strangely TJ pulled his wallet out of his pocket. Cora was trying to comprehend this new piece of the puzzle as TJ started backing out of his office, still fumbling in his wallet.  
“I will turn myself in to HR first thing in the morning, I promise. I had no right.” It was at this point in his litany that TJ tripped over the trash can Cora had seen him kick earlier.  
“Oh God, TJ! Are you alright?” Cora was finally jarred from her stunned perch on TJ’s desk.  
TJ hopped up, with a twenty dollar bill in one hand and the other held out like a stop sign. “I’m fine. Well other than the fact that I just harassed my best friend on my desk. I’m so sorry, Cora.”  
Having frozen again at his signal, Cora was trying to figure out why in the Hell TJ was waiving a twenty dollar bill around after "harassing" her (quite nicely she couldn’t help but add). She was about to become indignant and tell him off when TJ snatched up the swear jar, jammed the bill inside, smacked it back down on the desk and turned tail, blazing out of the office. He was still muttering, “...no excuse.”  
It was Cora’s turn to drop stunned into the nearest chair. “What the hell just happened?” she asked the empty room. Tears started to run down her face. “WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH THIS FUCKING DAY!?” Everything that had happened seemed to hit her all at once. 

~  
She was sitting on a chair near the woman she had doubled back to re-interview. Only she wasn’t the only person who wanted one more word with Sarah Raskin. Sarah’s Ex-husband Frank Raskin, the prime suspect in the homicide she had caught yesterday, had blitzed her as soon as she had walked in the door.  
After forcing Sarah to zip tie her hands together at knife point, both woman watched nervously as Raskin paced the living room. He gesticulated wildly with the knife as he ranted; running high on drugs and rage. Raskin seemed to catch a glimpse of Cora out of the corner of his eye and in a flash was charging at her and grabbing her roughly by the hair at the nape of her neck. Cora screamed in surprise, and fear, and pain as the knife came up into her field of view. “Bitch Cop!” Raskin spat, as the world exploded into motion.  
The door, unlocked, flew open, and TJ burst in with his gun drawn. The barrel whipped up immediately taking target at Raskin’s mass. His face was more serious than Cora had ever seen, looking at him from this end of a gun. Her heart beat faster at the sight of this man, and with a strangely calm and certain knowledge that everything was going to be okay now that TJ had found her.  
It came as even more of a shock then when she felt the rough grasp of a hand from behind her, and a sharp burn at her neck. “TJ!” Cora yelled.  
The burning became even sharper and the only thought that remained in Cora’s mind was, He’ll make the shot. As she thought it, the loud bark of TJ’s glock concussed the room and a weight at Cora’s back caused her to drop to the floor.  
At least I got to see him one more time, was all Cora could think as she shuttered on the ground. There was the sound of metal sliding across the floor and then arms enveloped her and she was surrounded by the scent of men’s soap and laundry starch. Maybe there is one man on this planet that might be worth trusting.  
~

Cora sobbed for about ten seconds, overwhelmed with all that had taken place that day and all she had come to realize about her feelings for TJ. She had thought of him as her best friend, as the best man she’d ever known, as the most annoying man she’d ever known. She had even admitted to having a bit of a crush on him.  
“What the hell is wrong with me?” Cora got out, as sobs slowly morphed into painful side splitting laughter that only caused her wound to throb more. “Pain in my neck,” she gasped out. Slowly Cora, caught her breath and regained some of her composure. Eventually she stood up, fished out her keys. There was nothing else for it but to go to TJs house and finally get her say in the matter.  
As she exited. Cora couldn’t help but snicker, “I’m in love with a man who put $20 in a swear jar for saying 'damn' when he thought no one was around!”

**Author's Note:**

> So, I haven't written anything in a while. I decided getting finally writing down the mental fan-fictions I've been making in my head forever might get me started with real habits. However, this story is longer in my head. Obviously the arguments over the evaluations and the hostage situation case happened before and then there's Cora's reaction after. This is kind of the distillation of events, though. If anyone out there is super interested I can write the expanded chapter version, otherwise that will probably only happen if I successfully redevelop writing habits.  
> Anyway, I hope the "distillation" didn't make it too confusing to follow. Getting the flashback and a bit of perspective from both characters is a lot in this short of a piece, so I wanted the end to mirror the beginning in a way. Critiques/Corrections appreciated!


End file.
